Aquarium

[Rob]

And the only other thing I planted is a Nymphaea bulb. I love the color of the leaves. It should contrast nicely with the deep green of the Java moss.

[abnormal]

Sweet!!   That’s coming along great Rob! 

btw, didn't know until last night you were also an awesome pianist!

[Rob]

Tonight's shot:

Looks like it's starting to lean, oh no!

[Rob]

More shots. The angels are starting to feel at home now, they are very much chow hounds. No more hiding out.

Water isn't as clear as it should be, but that will right itself shortly. I don't believe in using chemistry to fix that.

[Rob]

Lots of new growth visible on the Vesicularia...

[Rob]

One of the shyer individuals pictured here. This pic really shows what made me buy these guys: they have great fins and are as black as the ace of spades. That larger, bolder individual is the lightest of the batch, plus the least shy and probably the least good-looking, although he looks pretty good too.

And for those of you wondering why the heck I put black fish against a black background--they tend to wash out over a light background or light gravel, so they'd never look good. I'm also counting on there being very little background showing once the plants are grown, and furthermore these fish get pretty big. Once they're 4 inches long, they'll be a lot less shy, and also showing a lot of adult color that the juveniles don't have now.

[justDIY]

angelfish always look so intelligent, that guy appears to be studying your reactor design

[Rob]

Been fighting an algae bloom, so no pics for a while, but that rotala sure grows when you aren't looking. So do the angels, they've nearly doubled in size.

[Synapse]

what kind of algae? 

[Rob]

Got a lot of green stuff on the sides, driftwood and gravel. Not entirely unexpected, since I am lighting the crap out of it, and dumoping nutrients in like crazy (nitrogen from the heavy fish load, carbon from the gas bottle).

I wiped down the sides, which released it all into the water to circulate, and that's when I got the murky madness. I have since dropped down to a couple hours light a day, quit the carbon dioxide, and slapped an external filter on for the short term until things level out. I've been doing partial water changes daily too. I expect that this will pass eventually and I'll get my clear water back again.

I used to own a canister filter that would zap this stuff out of the water in an hour. But back then I had several big tanks too, so it was justified. I don't want to buy one for this tank (>$100), so I'm going the slow, low-tech (*cough* cheap *cough*) way of shutting the light source down. Not as much instant gratification that way, but it should work.

[Rob]

You notice the cardinal tetras in the shot above, I got those on Black Friday along with a little dinky Synodontis eupterus catfish. I lost 4 of the 15 tetras to ich (damn things are really susceptible) but the other 11 are eating well and looking good as they undergo treatment. Of course the medication kills them too...

Here's the catfish, you don't see much of him when the lights are on. He's really hard to shoot.

[Rob]

I got a shipment today from my dad. It contained a bag of Riccia fluitans plus some duckweed that was tagging along. I didn't notice the duckweed until I installed it in my show tak of course. 

Anyhow, a couple hours of quality time with a net and I now have the refined weapons-grade riccia you see here in this beaker. I think I'll try the mesh bag approach to installing it.

[justDIY]

that's a nice haul of ricca ... I hope it is fruitful and multiplies like crazy for you!

[Rob]

http://ricciafluitans.com/ nice eye candy on this site. I think he should get an award for most narrowly themed website ever.

[justDIY]

I wouldn't have thought to use galvanized steel wire in an aquarium, which is what hardware cloth is in my neck of the woods, and appears to be what's pictured here.

http://www.ricciafluitans.com/grow.html

I suppose the iron from the steel wouldn't be a problem, but what about the other heavy metals in the alloy, not to mention the zinc?